Options On Road Widening Sought

Illinois 59 Bypass Among Alternatives

April 12, 1999|By Rogers Worthington, Tribune Staff Writer.

BARRINGTON — With pressure increasing to widen Illinois Highway 59, Barrington officials are stepping up efforts to study a bypass around the village's downtown, where the highway is a main street and would be difficult to widen.

But there may be yet another option: Plans are under way to widen other routes that could take some of the traffic off Illinois 59 through Barrington.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has plans to widen Illinois Highway 22, Lake-Cook Road and Rand Road, and to extend Illinois Highway 53/Interstate-290 into Lake County. These plans, which are further along and rank higher in the elaborate planning process, could be enough to divert traffic away from Illinois 59 and eliminate the need for widening through Barrington or a bypass.

"If (the Illinois 53 extension) is built and does attract the traffic . . . that would delay any expansion of 59," said Illinois Department of Transportation engineer Richard Starr, whose job it is to advance long-range plans for regional arterials.

"We'd still have this (59's widening) planned, but if it wasn't needed, we wouldn't implement it until it was," Starr said.

The Illinois 53 extension into Lake County has opposition of its own, as does the widening of Illinois 22. And these projects could be years away from construction.

In the meantime, Barrington is moving ahead with the bypass feasibility study as a preventive measure. The village plans to have a consultant hired and at work by next year.

"We're saying we're not going to have IDOT come down to the wire someday 10 or 15 years from now and shove it down our throats," Barrington Village President Ronald Hamelberg said.

"We can't hide our heads under a rock and expect it to go away. We have to be prepared to deal with it. If there's going to be a Route 59 . . . improvement, we need a bypass."

Algonquin was successful in lobbying for a western bypass for Illinois Highway 31 that will steer traffic from its downtown area. And Barrington has a similar goal.

For years, Barrington residents rebuffed suggestions by the state that someday Hough Street (Illinois 59) would become so congested that it would have to be widened. But the first half of the prediction soon came true.

Daily traffic counts rose to 27,000--above capacity for the two-lane road--and in a survey of village residents last spring, 83 percent of respondents listed congestion as the town's No. 1 problem.

They also said that rather than widen Hough Street to four lanes, they would prefer a bypass.

Several bypasses have been informally discussed, such as along the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroad tracks to the east, or along Ela Street to the west.

A study of these options would cost $400,000 to $500,000, and Hamelberg wants to convince the state, IDOT and officials of Lake and Cook Counties to contribute to the study.

Barrington's point is that the 27,000 vehicles flowing through the village each day on Illinois 59 are not just Barrington's problem, but a regional problem.

"Those 27,000 vehicles are driving through town to get somewhere other than the village of Barrington," said John Heinz, the village's engineer.

Meanwhile, state planners have backed away from pressing the issue of widening Illinois 59 in downtown Barrington.

"We sort of black-boxed the whole area around (downtown) Barrington," said Starr.